19p a litre for unleaded?

Never again in my lifetime will we see real unleaded at 19p a litre.  However Cella Energy is claiming that's what we would be paying for a hydrogen based fuel which can be used in existing petrol engine cars "without modification".  Well, without adding a hydrogen tank etc. of course.

I've been watching the development of hydrogen based fuels for internal combustion engines for a while as its a very renewable (water derived) source of power and burns in a car engine with only water vapour as the by product.  Yes, a zero emission vehicle.  Older cars will have some hydrocarbons in the tail pipe simply because of oil washing past the control rings into the combustion chamber but this is about as green as it gets for the old four stroke.

I am aware of research being done at the University of Sheffield who have a Ford Focus already running on Hydrogen gas.  They claim close to zero emissions at the tailpipe and no noticeable loss of power when switching between unleaded petrol and the gas system.  Sheffield were also talking about a home-user solar powered hydrogen generator at the time which answers the critics who whine that hydrogen isn't renewable as you need electricity to make it and (regardless of what Eon etc. tell you) the proportion of mains electricity coming from renewables is slim right now.

As I understand the conversion it is similar to an LPG conversion, just with a cleaner gas.  However it does seem Cella are suggesting a liquid fuel could be marketed which goes in the regular petrol tank.  Even better...

I am interested as to the calorific value of hydrogen compared to unleaded and its octane equivalent.  IE how good is this fuel going to be at supporting real big power and huge boost in forced induction applications?  Has a whole new avenue of tuning just opened up?

I hope so.

Custom Tucker

I have always harboured some lust for the Tucker Torpedo, and when I heard that they had made a number of GRP replicas for the movie "Tucker, a man and his dream" I did wonder what the chances of turning a decent clone out would be.  Seems Rob Ida had the same idea.

You can read all about the car which is quite simply awesome in every concievable way here on the Car Audio Mag website

Imagining the future

Detroit Auto Show has turned up a selection of interesting concept cars, most of which are models rather than full sized or fully functioning prototypes but show some of the future thinking which is coming from Detroit and from the colleges and so forth who provide the talent of the future.  All of which looks a bit Sci-Fi right now.  Here's some shots courtesy of TechRepublic

I'm still waiting for my nuclear powered hover car.

Free Pizza is best pizza

Random thought.  Free Pizza.  Popped into the Co-op to pick up one of their very nice fresh pizzas, found it to be reduced to £2 for a pepperoni one.  Smart deal.  When I paid I was given a £2 off my next purchase voucher.  FREE PIZZA!

Yeah!  Free Pizza!

Well, thats all I have to say on that subject, but felt the need to share my good fortune.

Honda lost in NCP for 3 years

Just a quick one to tip y'all off to a wonderful story about an 80 year old fella by the name of Gerald Sanctuary who parked his Honda in a multi storey car park and couldn't find it again when he came back.  Now on this score I can sympathise. I'm sure we've all been there.  What separates Mr Sanctuary from the rest of us is that rather than wandering through the rows of parked vehicles swearing profusely until finally finding the mislaid vehicle, our Gerald thought "meh, what the hell" and went home on the bus.  He and his family spent three years looking for the Honda, although I suspect with declining enthusiasm for the task, until one day an eagle-eyed parking attendant noticed a very dirty silver hatchback which didn't seem to move and got the police to run the plates.  The Metro has the story, although its pretty much all that I have told here. 

The long lost Honda

Mitsubishi in worst car name eVaH + "shocking" new eco city car...

Mitsubishi must have been checking my blog and having seen my interest in the Ford Focus with plug in power decided now was the optimum time for them to launch their own fully productionalised electric car into the UK market.  The i-MiEV (catchy name, huh?) goes on sale today at a not inconsiderable £24K.  And every one of these that goes to a punter has also cost you and me the British tax payer £5K in subsidies from the public purse to the pocket of the Mitsubishi buyer.  I'm not sure how I feel about that, but “happy” wasn't the first word to come to my mind.

Car engine or washing machine? You decide.

So the i-MiEV is not cheap for a little car, and thats the thing which hit me first, but I appreciate that we have to stop equating “size” with “value” and “quality” - even with motor cars, is biggest always best?  I have to struggle to say no being as I drive a Cadillac Fleetwood as a daily driver but I digress.

UK version of the i-MiEV

£24K (really £29K without the subsidy) may seem a heck of a lot compared to another small well spec'd car but when you think there is no petrol to pay for, no road tax and no congestion charge If you live in an area affected by this extra taxation (areas outside London are getting it too boys and girls) then you can offset all this against the purchase cost.  Buyers will get the choice to have the Mitsubishi, Citroen or Peugeot badge on the car as the French manufacturers have a rebadging scheme in place so they can sell them through their own dealerships.  With the french reputation for vehicle electrics I would be surprised if less than 97% of these things ship with the Mitsubishi logo on them...

I'm sorry but this just made me ROFL

It looks kinda groovy, the dash is very sci-fi, and road test reports tell me it drives well, and it can take 80% charge on its 93 mile range in just 30 minutes.  But you know what?  I don't want one.  If the option were this or a G-Wizz or Sinclair C5 then I think I'd change my tune.  Now if you'll excuse me I need to speak to my mortgage advisor about raising the capital to buy another tank of unleaded for the Caddy.  

Mitsubishi's pages for the car are here

Electrifying Focus

Also at CES Ford have announced their all-electric Focus. Ford claim its a class winner with lowest costs in its market segment.  Specifications are that charge time is 3-4 hours from a 240V outlet, common as domestic supply over here but not in the US.  With a full battery will let the Focus hit a top speed of 84mph.  Ford haven't specified the maximum range for the car which is the killer for most of these more than actual performance. The statement just says “Focus is designed to offer enough range to cover the majority of daily driving habits of Americans". Whatever that is supposed to mean.

Looks like any old Ford Focus

A smart 4.2” display gives you all the info on discharge and recharge and is also tied to a smartphone ap, for reasons I am yet to discern.

Pricing, release date and European release have yet to be confirmed.

With an interior styled like one of those Dixons hifi systems.

Sign O The Times

I am a simple man.  I thought this was amusing.  I am not quite sure why. A sale at Poundland.  Enjoy.

Everything a pound. Except those that are not.

Asteroid brings Android to the car dashboard

This is tech I like.

French Bluetooth kit manufacturer Parrot has designed an in-car head unit. The Asteroid runs Google Android (a rehashed phone implementation by the looks of it) to offer a real integrated next-generation experience.  Or at least that is the theory.  With GPS and Google Maps and Parrot's own turn-by-turn navigation this doesn't offer much we've not seen before.  Where things do get interesting is with 3G connectivity which comes via an optional dongle.   

Android in the dash - consumer style

Now the world of digital radio, internet radio and other streaming media such as Spotify is offered to the dashboard in a convenient package without having to build yourself a carputer.  I would hope the Asteroid offers support for iPlayer for BBC radio.  What I want is to be able to load my music to the cloud and listen to it anywhere on any device: My PC, my phone, my car stereo, my friend’s PC, the TV in the room in the hotel I'm checked into...  I'm sure the Asteroid isn't a perfect solution (its a v1.0 product after all) but device independent music streaming just took a step closer.  Now what about the data bundles, restrictions and costs associated with the 3G on this thing?

More here, and here and then here

Labour: reminding you why you voted them out.

Maria Eagle, the new shadow transport secretary, wants to use the UK’s network of average speed cameras to provide incentives for motorists to observe the law.  Yup, Labour don't just want to record the 'plates of cars caught speeding, they seem to be suggesting a national database of every car and its average speed in relation to speed limits posted according to this interview printed in the Daily Torygraph. 

Maria Eagle - looks more like Maria Evil.

No no no, this is not a revival of pay as you drive, in fact its economically being promoted as the opposite, but it does give some credibility to the suggestions which came about at that time which were that the scheme was more about building a giant tracking database rather than anything else.  Guess what the big common factor here is?  A big tracking database.  I was one of those who dismissed this suggestion as scaremongering last time out but I'm prepared to adjust my opinions to fit the prevailing facts.  Hmmm.

Spy in the sky (well, on a pole anyway)

Oh well, at least Maria will have moved on to some other shadow cabinet post by the time of the next election.  Also a politico with an odd name Eric Pickles (he's the Communities Secretary) has announced that "the war on the motorist is over" according to an article in today's Metro.  Which is a relief. I don't know about you but avoiding IEDs set up by my local council and fending off marauding raiders from the Department for Transport was really slowing up my commute in the mornings.  Don't you just love the way these prize buffoons like to over-egg everything? 

Eric Pickles - fatwah on drivers to be lifted.

Yeah, sure the previous administration had policies which were not exactly helpful to the average car owner (and worse still for the abnormal car owner like myself) but lets be honest to call it a war is demeaning to the intelligence of all concerned and an insult to those who have past and present actually fought in wars...  Pay an annoying extra tax or get shot at by terrorists?  Not much of a comparison is there.